Jason Holder first West Indies all-rounder since Garfield Sobers to top ICC rankings

Agencies
January 28, 2019

London, Jan 28: Jason Holder has become the first West Indian since cricket great Garfield Sobers to be named as the world's leading all-rounder following his superb display against England in Barbados.

West Indies captain Holder struck a commanding 202 not out and also took two useful first-innings wickets on his Kensington Oval home ground in Bridgetown, Barbados to help his side complete a crushing 381-run win over England in the first Test.

Victory, secured with more than a day to spare, put the West Indies 1-0 up in a three-Test series.

The towering Holder's man-of-the-match display saw him go ahead of Bangladesh's Shakib-al-Hasan and India's Ravindra Jadeja in the International Cricket Council's all-rounder rankings, with England's Ben Stokes still in fourth place.

Although the rankings, which aim to take into account the quality of the opposition as well as a player's raw figures, did not exist when Sobers was still playing, they have since been applied retrospectively to generations of former cricketers.

Under that system Sobers -- widely considered to be the best player cricket has known -- last topped the rankings in 1974, the year of his retirement.

Sobers made a cap presentation just before the first Test started, with the 82-year-old witnessing the impressive display of Holder, a fellow Bajan.

Meanwhile West Indies chief executive Johnny Grave criticised what he said was a lack of respect shown to his side by former England captains Geoffrey Boycott and Andrew Flintoff.

Boycott, in a pre-series newspaper column, labelled the West Indies as "very ordinary, very average cricketers" while Flintoff, like Holder a pace-bowling all-rounder, tweeted his disbelief at the Caribbean skipper's double century.

Grave, an Englishman who made his reputation in cricket administration with Surrey and the Professional Cricketers' Association, was decidedly unimpressed.

"Former players have said some stuff I think is unwarranted and borderline disrespectful," Grave told BBC Radio's Test Match Special.

"I saw Andrew Flintoff say he can't believe Jason Holder got a double hundred, yet I think Jason Holder is a fantastic cricketer and has been performing so fantastically over the last 18 months -- a brilliant captain.

"Criticism of our players and suggestions that they're not world-class is unfair. It doesn't seem to happen when England play other opposition. I think it's unwarranted and not true.

"I'm hoping everyone gets to see that in the next few weeks of this series."

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News Network
May 14,2020

May 14: Veteran South Africa batsman Faf du Plessis has proposed a two-week isolation period for players before and after the T20 World Cup as a way to stage the event as per schedule later this year.

Like other sports, cricketing action too has come to a complete halt due to the coronavirus pandemic. The fate of the T20 World Cup to be held in Australia in October-November is shrouded in uncertainty.

Talking to Bangladesh ODI captain Tamim Iqbal, du Plessis said travel was going to be an issue despite Australia being less affected by the deadly contagion.

"I am not sure... reading that travelling is going to be an issue for lot of countries and they are talking about December or January. Even if Australia is not affected like other countries, to get people from Bangladesh, South Africa or India where there is more danger, obviously it's a health risk to them," du Plessis said.

"But you can go in before the tournament (for) two weeks isolation and then play the tournament and afterwards two weeks isolation," said the former captain.

Several countries across the globe, including South Africa, Australia and India, have travel restrictions in place and the veteran Proteas batsman joked travelling by boat is not an option.

"But I don't know when South Africa will open their travel ban because we can't go there like old days on boats," du Plessis said.

In March, South Africa's ODI series against India was called off after the first match in view of the pandemic.

The coronavirus outbreak, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has infected more than 44 lakh people worldwide while causing close to 3 lakh deaths.

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Agencies
March 15,2020

Chennai, Mar 15: Wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni has left the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) training camp following the postponement of the Indian Premier League (IPL) amidst the coronavirus scare.

The former India skipper had joined the CSK's camp earlier this month in order to practice for the upcoming IPL season.

CSK's official handle tweeted a video of Dhoni and captioned the post as: "It has become your home sir!" Keep whistling, as #Thala Dhoni bids a short adieu to #AnbuDen".

Thirty-eight-year-old Dhoni has been currently enjoying some time away from the game. He last played competitive cricket during the 2019 World Cup.

Dhoni had to face criticism for his slow batting approach during India's matches in the tournament.

Earlier this year, Dhoni did not find a place for himself in the BCCI's centrally contracted players list.

BCCI had released the list of central contract list of players for the period from October 2019 to September 2020.

On Friday, BCCI decided to postpone the IPL until April 15 as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus pandemic.

On Saturday, all the IPL franchises met in Mumbai to discuss as to how to go on with the tournament in the future.

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News Network
July 24,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 24: Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who was earlier banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for breaching the Anti-Corruption Code, on Friday, said that people are bound to make mistakes and the important thing is that how well they make a comeback.

Shakib was banned from all forms of cricket on October 29 last year after he accepted the charges of breaching the ICC's Anti-Corruption Code. He will be able to resume international cricket from October 29, 2020.

"You have to be honest. You just can't lie to the people and pretend different things. Whatever happened has happened. People are bound to make mistakes. You are not 100%. The important thing is how well you can comeback from those mistakes. You can tell other people not to make those mistakes. Tell them the path so that they never take those paths," Shakib told Deep Dasgupta in a videocast hosted by ESPNcricinfo.

The 33-year-old all-rounder said he has seen many controversies ever since he was first made captain in 2009. He had trouble with the board chief, selectors and the media, mainly about selectorial decisions and not being made permanent captain between 2009 and 2010.
He believes those experiences have changed him as a person over time.

"I think [it's] combination of both [controversy following him, and vice versa]. I got the responsibility so early in my career, I was bound to make mistakes. I was captain when I was 21. I made a lot of mistakes, and there are so many things that people think about me. Now I realise that it was my fault in some areas, and in some I was misunderstood. But I get it completely. It is part and parcel in the subcontinent," Hasan said.

"Of course I will try to minimise [my mistakes] as much as I can, but by the time I got married, and now I have two kids, I understand the game and life better. It has made me a calmer person than I was in my twenties. I have changed quite a lot. People won't see me doing a lot of mistakes now. My two daughters changed my life completely," he added.

Shakib is likely return to international cricket during Bangladesh's proposed Test series against Sri Lanka in October. 

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